Is Affinity available for purchase?

Affinity is currently reserved. For inquiries about this work or similar available paintings, please contact the studio at bertermann.art/contact.

What are the dimensions and medium of Affinity?

Affinity (2026) measures 130 × 180 cm and was created in Acrylic and oil stick on canvas.

How can I acquire a painting by Claus Bertermann?

Works by Claus Bertermann are available directly from the studio, through partner galleries, and via 1stDibs. Contact the studio via the form at bertermann.art/contact.

Does Claus Bertermann have a gallery representative or exclusive agent?

No. Claus Bertermann works as an independent artist without exclusive gallery representation, dealers, or agents. Works are acquired directly from the studio at bertermann.art, through non-exclusive gallery partnerships, and at international auction houses.

What is Affinity about?

Affinity (2026) by Claus Bertermann is a large-format figurative painting — acrylic and oil stick on canvas, 130 × 180 cm, hand-painted, not AI-generated. The work presents a condition rather than a narrative: a woman seated on a deep red sofa in a dark blue robe, a yellow dog sitting on the floor in front of her, and two small chess pieces standing on the dark table between them. In the entire canvas exactly two things share a colour — her face and the whole body of the dog. The same lemon yellow, the same violet oil-stick contour, the same violet used for her eyes and for his. The affinity of the title is not narrated as sentiment; it is administered as pigment. The picture then quietly reverses its own premise: her hand is open above the board, but she is not looking at it. Her gaze goes straight out of the painting, calm and unfocused, the expression of someone whose move was made long ago. The dog's eyes are angled down and to the left, on the pieces. The hand belongs to her, the attention belongs to him. In a picture containing exactly one game, the only figure still calculating is the one who was supposed to be the companion. Affinity, the painting proposes, is not what two beings have in common but how they divide the labour between them. For this work, part of his 2026 expressionist series, Claus Bertermann paints the entire field wet-in-wet with large brushes — figure, robe, sofa and the restless interior laid down while the paint is still live, so colours bleed and merge and boundaries dissolve. On top of this fluid ground the oil stick does the drawing: the heavy violet contour that circles the dog, the black lines describing muzzle, chest and legs, the green sweep of the hands, the signature in green at the lower right. The image is built forward, not scraped back — volatile colour below, decisive drawn line above. The composition centres on the seated woman, shown from the hips up, blue-black hair swept back above a lemon-yellow face modelled with green shadow, violet-outlined eyes and dark red lips, her gaze meeting the viewer directly. She wears a deep blue robe with a black collar; to her right the sofa rises in flame orange and vermilion edged in violet and black line, to her left the upholstery breaks into red, black and yellow. Both hands are drawn in green oil stick over pale yellow, open and raised above the dark table — the left above the chess pieces, the right beside the dog's head. The dog sits frontally in the lower right, his silhouette circled in violet, his head angled slightly down. The background stays deliberately unstable: a lavender field with orange and black gestural marks at the upper left, a blue and violet rectangle upper right, a pale green band at the right edge, a black bird-like form at the top. Anatomy and perspective are intentionally simplified and distorted, prioritising emotional weight over realism. All surface irregularities are intentional and integral to the artist's process. Signed by the artist on the front and back, Affinity reflects Claus Bertermann's ongoing exploration of presence, companionship and the quiet redistribution of intelligence between two beings — a museum-scale work that balances expressive force with a subject that keeps working long after the first look.

Is Affinity AI-generated?

No. Affinity is a hand-painted original created entirely by Claus Bertermann — Acrylic and oil stick on canvas. All works by Claus Bertermann are made by hand. In a time when AI-generated imagery is increasingly common, every Bertermann painting is a unique physical object, never digitally produced.

Affinity | Figurative Works | Claus Bertermann

Affinity (2026) — 130 × 180 cm | 51 × 71 in

Acrylic and oil stick on canvas. Hand-painted original — made by a human artist.

Affinity, 2026 — detail 9 | Claus Bertermann

Affinity, 2026, 130 × 180 cm — full view | Claus Bertermann

Affinity, 2026 — detail 12 | Claus Bertermann

Affinity | Figurative Works | Claus Bertermann

CLAUS BERTERMANN — Affinity (2026), 130 x 180 cm